Chapter 35: 35. Can You Feel My Heart

__________*_Sora_*__________

Royal Palace, Axis Mundis, Draconia

I bounded along on all fours through the great halls of my palace home, Honour Guards stationed at certain points stood straighter to attention as I passed. I skidded to a halt as I stood upright as I reached my destination, the conference room, where four Honour Guards were stationed outside.

Guard 1: "Princess Sora, I am unaware of any invitation sent to you with regards to this meeting."

Sora: "I was unaware I required an invitation to speak with my mother."

Guard 2: "Your highness... the Queen is currently in said meeting, it would be unwise to interrupt-"

Sora: "I need to speak with her, it's urgent. Now please, let me in." The guards looked to each other.

Guard: "One moment please your highness..." He turned and unlocked the door and stepped into the doorway, "...Your majesty, Princess Sora is requesting an audience with yourself." I heard my mother's voice reply from inside the room,

Arisu: "Inform her that I am busy, we can talk later."

Guard: "I have explained as such my lady, however she insists that is of an urgent nature."

Arisu: "Hmph... Very well, show her in." Before the guard had even turned back to me I stepped past him into the view of my mother and each of the eight councillors, sat around a large oval table, all eyes set on me, silent until the Honour Guard left the room, closing the door behind him. It wasn't until the door closed that my mother spoke from the head end of the table.

Arisu: "what have you done to your neck?"

I had forgotten about the large scratches that Skylen had given me in the fight."

Sora: "Erm, fell over and caught myself." My mother raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

Arisu: "Oh daughter of mine... Why you feel the need to lie to me I don't know. But nevermind... Tell me, you have no interest in politics, you have made this quite clear in the past yourself. So why, might I ask, do you insist on gracing us with your presence?"

Sora: "We may potentially have a problem."

Arisu: "We already do, the subject of this meeting is that the Shard has been detected being used on Earth just three days ago, the strongest reading we have ever received on record... And you... were?... Where?? might I ask? Because you wasn't in the Palace, like I asked you to, not even in Axis Mundis, you and your little friend were nowhere to be found."

Sora: "I was in Iceland... Earth." mother threw her data pad that she had in hand onto the table in front of her, sitting back in her chair shaking her head.

Arisu: "Why does that not surprise me... The epicenter of this reading was, funnily enough, Iceland... Earth... but you already know that don't you... Why is it that when there is trouble you seem to be involved?"

Sora: "Just a knack I picked up I guess."

Arisu: "Certainly not from me though. Please... take a seat... and tell us what happened." She gestured to the empty seat at the opposite end of the table to her. I stepped forwards pulled out the chair and sat down.

Sora: "Ok... so, mother, you remember Alex? The ex-SkyTech?..."

__________

After reciting the events that occurred from London, then Iceland, Scotland and through to getting back to America, up to the moment I left Alex and the others, my mother remained very quiet for good 30 seconds, staring into space.

Arisu: "Hmmm... this... this is very disturbing indeed... So the Shard... The Shard is now located somewhere with Alex?"

Sora: "Yes, I felt it, but I don't know where on her person exactly."

Arisu: "We must find a way to retrieve it."

Sora: "Which is why I returned, to seek advice and check the records to search for similar occurrences-"

Arisu: "There has never been anything remotely similar in our history even remotely resembling these events, I know... Well, I am prepared to be disproven. We must find a way, to leave it's powers in the hands of a Human... could be catastrophic."

Sora: "Alex isn't just Human anymore... but I trust her, the Shard will be safe-"

Arisu: "Don't. Don't put all your faith into just anyone, even those closest to you can turn on you. The Shard is filled with magic that we still do not know much about, that can even take the strongest of people to the darkest places. Rest assured, we shall both look into this... and we will talk about your little wanderings off to Earth at the same time young lady."

__________*_Wrex_*__________

I awoke the next morning, according to the bedside clock it was 03:03 I sighed and looked over to Alex, to pull her in close for a hug... but she wasn't there. I leapt up, eyes wide.

Wrex: "Alex?" I got out of bed and checked the en-suite bathroom, not in there, so I checked down stairs, headed for the kitchen upon hearing a clink, walked in seeing Jinx struggling to pour out some cereal one handed.

Wrex: "You're up early." I commented while watching her.

Jinx: "All this constant time zone hopping has given me jet lag, my body clock is fucked."

Wrex: "Yeah, same... Anyway, have you seen Alex?"

Jinx: "Not since you both went up stairs for your little fuck fest yesterday no."

Wrex: "We didn't- wait, did you hear-?"

Jinx: "It was impossible not to hear you two going at it, with her screaming away and you growling at her... thought you were going to come through the ceiling at one point 'cause you were smashing her on that bed so hard."

Wrex: "Erm… oops, sorry about that... but you haven't seen her since?"

She shook her head as she positioned her fruit bowl of cereal with her slinged arm and used her good arm to use a wooden ladle to spoon in a mouthful.

__________*_Alex_*__________

I was slowly getting use to myself, the new self anyway... the occasional whispers in my head were easily drowned out for now by my old driving playlist turned up. It was weird, in my old armour, the suite, although it was linked to me and acted as if it was a part of me, I knew deep down it wasn't. Sure it was brilliant, what ever I wanted it to do it pretty much did... But now this armour... it was a whole another level. It Truly was a part of me... I could feel through it, I could hear as if my ears were attached outside, but able to shut my hearing off or turn it down if I wanted, helps for wind noise anyway.

I could see, exactly what I could see normally and more, as in peripheral vision, much like the old suite, but this felt more natural in my mind and to the point that I could see behind me. I could see heat, I could see the wind, I could see electrical currents, I could even see the flow of sap through trees... but I could do it all even without my helmet on. And functions of the suit were no longer 'willed' by my thoughts, the simply happened naturally, like the controlling muscles in your body that you'd use every day that you wouldn't even give a second thought about, like blinking or breathing. Oh and my plasma jets? Well I basically wanted them to go faster, soo... they did. Currently I was cruising at Mach 6, that's about 4600 miles an hour, and what's even more disturbing?, I KNOW that I can go faster. I could just Jump to my destination, but I already knew that the Vanguard were able to track the Shard's usage. And as the bloody thing was stuck in my back I thought it was best to use it as little as possible.

I felt an incoming call come in in my mind's eye, from Wrex, but I shut it out. I can't face him, I just couldn't. I was on a mission, I needed to make things right with some people before I potentially went bad and faded from existence. First port of call, Sarah Jarvie. She was being held up in a different private hospital down in Glasgow, under the name of 'Sarah Crawford.' She became conscious yesterday morning and requested the move and name change due to security reasons. How do I know all this? I hacked the NHS database, and that's 'I' hacked it, as in, 'me', not the suit. Since becoming more self aware this morning I've realised I can also talk to computers. I can't find out everything, not yet. Like SkyTech locations, other high security things... I'm working on it but not got there yet. But 'Low' security like the NHS? Piece of cake. I came in quick behind the hospital, spreading my wings and landed in an 'out of sight' loading and unloading yard for equipment and supplies.

'I needed a disguise, even without my armour, my wings, tail, claws and scales sort of gave me away, I mean Sora did it easy enough, how hard can it be?' so I simply made one...

I wasn't a hundred percent sure how she does hers, I'll have to ask at some point, if I ever get the chance. For now I had worked out I could simply hide my extra extremities and non Human aspects from plain sight, pasting a mirage over them if you will, it just took a lot of concentration. I based my image off of what Sora used, as the Human side of me didn't look too different in retrospect anyway. My armour retreated, folding and sliding back along my body with metallic sliding and clicking sounds, revealing my choice of clothing underneath. I just used a simple hoodie, just a plain black zip up type, trousers I used some dark skinny fit denims and for the shoes, just some bland hi-top Converse in red and white. I checked my reflection in a nearby window. Sure enough, anything Dragon-esque about me was hidden from view and a rather average, pretty looking, short haired girl stared back at me. I waved my tail behind my head, I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. I brought around beside me and made a grab at it. Sure enough, it was there, I just couldn't see it. This meant I had to go careful though, if someone got too close, they'd probably feel my extra appendages as well.

'Shouldn't be a problem, I'm not planning on getting close to anyone and causing trouble.' I thought to myself and made my way around the front of the building.

I entered the reception area and walked up to the front desk. The receptionist looked up at me and smiled from behind the screen.

Receptionist: "Good morning. Can I help you?"

Me: "G'morning... Yes, I was told my cousin was brought in yesterday here, er, Sarah Crawford, could I make a visit?, Please?" This was merely a formality with me asking, I knew exactly where she was, third floor, room 87.

Receptionist: "Hmm... let's see... And your name is?" As she started searching her computer.

Me: "Sorry, Alex Jarvie."

Receptionist: "One moment, I just need to verify you with her, she has requested any visits to be called in first..." The woman picked up the phone dialled a number and made the call upstairs. it took a good few moments for the other end to answer, "...Oh Hi Raina, I have a young lady here by the name of Alex Jarvie, requesting a visit to see Miss Crawford, could you just nip over and check to see if she is awake and willing to take her visit please..." there was a long wait, almost a minute or so before the receptionist started again, "Yes?... Oh, I see... ok well, I will send someone to escort her up then." She put the handset back down on the base, "...poor girl, still having troubles breathing apparently. Be sure not to push her too much, it's a miracle giving her injuries and her condition that she's alive, let alone conscious, although she has been in and out so please bare this in mind. Apparently she did seem a bit shocked of your arrival but has granted your visit, I'll just find a nurse to escort you up there."

__________

The nurse guided me to the door of room 87 of the third floor, knocked on the door three times and slowly entered.

Nurse: "Miss Crawford, Miss Jarvie here to see you." There was nothing but silence as a reply but the nurse nodded and gestured me in.

Nurse: "Please, for your own safety, do not touch her." She explained as I passed her and she waited in the doorway until Sarah gave her the nod of 'all ok' before closing the door behind us. I looked at the mess that was once my saviour lying on the bed. Her once well groomed, shinny, healthy jet black hair was now patchy, clumps had fallen out here and there and what was left was thin and dark grey. What of her face that wasn't burnt or covered in bandage pads stuck here and there was pale in colour. There were tubes coming out of her left, right and center and a heart monitor beeping away. Her right arm... Fuck... As per her file, was non existent, a forequarter amputation was apparent, leaving only her left arm to pull away her oxygen mask to talk to me.

Sarah: "You're either here because I know you or you're about to kill me so..." She fell into a coughing fit and had to breathe heavily into the mask to recover.

Me: "Sarah, it's me, Alex."

Sarah: "You don't look like Alex, but you do sort of sound like her."

Me: "You've saved me... I've lost track how many times now, but first time there was the regulator, then you set me free from the prison, then built me an awesome armour, and gave me an AI, who saved my life a couple of times too, then you saved me again in Iceland..." I decided to leave off the bit about Crystal actually being a trapped psychotic murderous conscience of a Dragoness who was actually called Reikon, who was currently trying to take over my mind as we speak... yeah, probably wouldn't help Sarah's mental state right now.

Sarah: "Well... You look... Different."

Me: "Again, you saving my life, a little side effect I obtained."

Sarah: "So... You're a Human again, and a young woman at that... Alex... I am sorry."

Me: "Whoa, hey, don't be, I'm not actually... Fully Human... Something strange happened... Probably easier just to show you, if you want?" She gestured to me to do so, so I went to the door and window that looked out upon the hospital hall and closed the blinds, then over the opposite side of the room to the window that looked outside and closed the curtains and stepped back to the base of the bed. I dropped the mirage, well, excluding the clothes, but my tail and wings I let appear through the clothes and my slitted eyes and hands, including scales and claws, were all on show for Sarah to see. She shuffled in her bed slightly to get a better look.

Sarah: "That's... Interesting... I really am sorry Alex."

Me: "What are you saying Sorry for?..." I said while looking down at my own hands before looking back up at her, "...So what if I have a couple of side effects, I'm alive thanks to you. If anything, I'm sorry what saving my life has done to you..." My eyes saw through her, I could see her body giving off low levels of radiation, not harmful if you spent small amounts of time around her, but touching her for long periods could be, I could see why the nurse instructed me not to... Not that it would probably have any affect on me of course. Her blood flow didn't look good... Internal bleeding, organ failures... she was dying, just slowly. "...you're a mess."

Sarah: "Thanks for the compliment." She replied sarcastically.

Me: "Sorry.

Sarah: "It's ok. The docs are doing their best for me." I looked glumly at her, I didn't have the heart to tell her what I can see.

Me: "You know... Tony Stark, you know, that Ironman character I mentioned before from the Marvel films... he was injured, by one of his own inventions, a weapon actually... he came back though stronger than before, built himself-"

Sarah: "-The Arc Reactor and the Ironman armour, I know... saved the world a few times too."

I smiled at her reply,

Me: "So you finally watched it after my suggestion then?"

She painfully smiled,

Sarah: "I had seen it before you ever mentioned it, I was just pulling your leg-gg-" Her sentence started turning into a chuckle before quickly turning into a coughing fit and she was unable to finish it, feebly trying to grab her mask. I quickly moved grabbed the mask, gently pressing it to her mouth, calming her cough down.

Sarah: "You know, *Pant* I've had a few accidents in my time, *Pant* ended up hospitalised a couple of times... *Pant* But I have to say... This sucks, this really *Pant* sucks." She croaked out. I felt myself frown as I pulled up a chair and sat on her left side.

'Sod it... The Shard emits this same radiation, more than what Sarah has in her and I'm fine... Hell, the Shard was probably healing me faster than it could kill me.' 

So after making this conclusion I reached over and took her hand. Instantly I gasped and stood back up, almost knocking the chair over.

Sarah: "What is it?" She asked worried.

Now... my body was doing some interesting things... For example, seeing what was wrong with Sarah... But I never thought I'd be able to feel what I just felt once touched Sarah, completely unintentionally too...

Me: "Sarah, want me to be brutally honest?"

Sarah: "Do I want to know?"

Me: "Probably not. Look, there's a way I can save you?"

Sarah: "Save me? I'm already in good care."

Me: "You're not... well, they're doing their best I'm sure... but you're dying Sarah, I'm sorry, it's the truth. BUT! There's another way."

Sarah: "I'm dying?!" She coughed and spluttered again, I forced the mask back on her face.

Me: "Hey hey, focus on me, slow deep breaths... I can save you, if you want me to, but you might not like it."

Sarah: "Go on?" She said muffled through the mask.

Me: "What are your thoughts on becoming a Dragon?"

Sarah: "It's not possible... I checked once out of curiosity, I don't have the correct DNA profiles... *Cough cough cough**gasp* ...to allow the process, my body will reject it."

Me: "But you do! And it won't!, I can feel it! I read your DNA when I touched you and-"

Sarah: "You did what?"

Me: "It's... It's complicated... As I say, there were some side effects... But Skylen was right. At the mansion? Where he said he can make more SkyTech using the Shard? I know how."

Sarah: "Wait... What? What are you talking about? What do you mean you read my DNA?"

I quickly hacked into SkyTech's low priority mainframes, transport documents, namely shipping manifests and storage locations and found exactly what I was looking for, every bit of it.

Me: "I can do it, I can definitely do it, if you want me to?"

Sarah: "How can you be so sure?"

Me: "I just know I can. Just trust me, please."

Sarah remained quiet for a few moments,

Sarah: "Well... Die as a Human or live as a Dragon... Not really a tough- *Cough cough*... Ahem... -Question eh?"

Me: "Great! We need somewhere quiet to do it though, can't be done here. The process takes about three weeks so it will need to be somewhere solitary, somewhere we won't be disturbed-"

Sarah: "What about the house in Maryland?"

Me: "We need a bit more space, like your old garage from the mansion-."

Sarah: "I have a summer home near Barcelona, it has a reasonably large garage."

Me: "Perfect!, let me have a look where it is..." I scanned through Javie Industries database...

You are reading story Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard at novel35.com

Sarah: "What?"

...through her personal files and found the address. I then searched for it on Google maps and street view and checked it against current satellite imagery...

Me: "Pah, who needs to have actually been there to be able to open a Jump eh Sora..." I asked myself rhetorically.

Sarah: "What are you on about?"

Me: "Too much to explain. I've got to get some things to make this work ok? I'll be back."

Sarah: "You seem far too excited about this." I sighed and knelt down beside her,

Me: "Sorry... I just... You've just done so much to help me, now I have a chance to return the favour. I'll be back soon, 12 hours, maybe less?" She nodded and I took her hand and gave it a good squeeze and gave her a smile before letting go, stepping backwards towards the door and grabbing the handle

Sarah: "Alex, your disguise?" I looked down at myself, my scaly hands in particular.

Me: "Oh yeah..." I concentrated again and recalled the image to lay over the top of my Dragon parts to conceal them once again, "...Thanks. I'll be back soon, I promise." She gave me the smallest of nods in return.

I exited the door. I don't know how much time I had before Reikon started taking over, but I was determined to right a few wrongs before she did. I checked the time as I made my way out of the hospital, 09:42, gives me most of the day to get everything ready for Sarah, worst case I can collect her tomorrow, from what I could see on the inside her, she should last a week. Although, the sooner she's out of pain the better of course. I walked around the corner of the building towards the yard I landed in earlier. But as I walked down the side of the building five completely blacked out Range Rover Sports tore past, screeching to a halt in the loading yard. I peered around the corner and watched men of all appearances but all wearing all black suits, step out of the cars, four from each... Then a familiar looking bald headed guy spoke,

"Target's name is 'Sarah Jarvie', but she's checked in here under 'Sarah Crawford', room 87 on the third floor. Team 2, cover the front entrance, team 3, the back ambulance entrance, team 4, I want 2 of you on this loading bay, the other 2 and team 5, split up around the building, cover all the emergency exits. Team 1, you're with me. We go in quiet, subtlety is the aim here so make it look like an accident or natural. But if we encounter trouble then she does not leave this hospital alive, you got it?"

Then it clicked to me where I recognised the guy... The day I was kidnapped! He was there! The Nissan Patrol driver! I watched as he produced an access card, swiped the lock for the back door of the loading bay, opened it and entered, his team following him in. I ducked back around the corner.

Me: "Fuck, they're SkyTech..." I whispered to myself, "...and they're here for Sarah. This is going to fuck up my plan slightly." I stepped backwards down the side of building and stepped out and away from it slightly, looking up at it. I analysed the building for where Sarah's room was, my HUD highlighting it's position on the front of the building. I shedded my image, my armour sliding over and coating me in the process then jetted off the ground and flew around the front of building, just as I heard the SkyTech goons rounding the side where I was stood moments before.

I found her window and smashed my way through, landing in a roll, and remained crouched and poised on the floor, much to Sarah's discomfort. I had surprised her clearly too much as she gasped, causing her to cough and splutter again and her heart monitor to pick up the pace. I opened my faceplates to her,

Me: "Hey hey, easy, just me... Sorry. Told you I'd be back soon though."

Sarah: "That's not what I had in mind..."

I strode over to the door, I could see the energy output a nurse was creating approaching it, obviously to check on the noise. I stood behind the door as it opened, grabbing the woman as she entered and cupping my hand over her mouth to muffle her scream and kicked the door shut.

Me: "Shhh... Listen, when you see me. Do not scream, I'm one of the good guys, this patient is in danger, some men from an organisation are in the building and are here to kill her. I will not allow that to happen. Now I'm going to let you go, don't scream or I'll make you regret it, understood?" The woman nodded in my grip so I released her, she briskly stepped away from me and turned, gasping and holding her hands over her mouth.

Sarah: "It's ok, she's a friend, I trust her." Sarah assured the nurse for me. I peeked through the closed blinds and down the hall.

Nurse: "What is this? What's going on? Who are you? And WHAT are you?!"

Me: "We're in trouble. Nurse, if we evacuated this woman can you look after her for a couple of days? Maintain her current health?"

Nurse: "I... I..."

Me/Reikon: "Simple yes or no answer lady, we do not have the time!" I smacked myself on the helmet a couple of times upon hearing my own voice emitting a dual tone, feeling Reikon push for control.

Me: "Fuck..."

Sarah: "What was that?"

Me: "Erm... Side effect... Will explain later. Answer though please nurse?"

Nurse: "I... Yes, with the appropriate equipment and supplies, yes I can."

Me: "Good enough- Here we go..." I said after peeking through the blinds again and seeing the suits walk down the hall towards us.

I closed my faceplates, opened the door, charging my plasma jet as I went and fired down the hall. The bald guy dropped to the deck upon the sight of my attack, but his colleague following behind him never stood a chance. The ball of plasma hit him, obliterating the top half of his body in a spray of blood and limbs, his legs falling lifelessly to the floor. The remaining members of the team quickly ducked into nearby doorways and withdrew their guns from under their jackets, SMGs and pistols. They fired, the rounds harmlessly pinged off my armour and I partially stepped back into the room.

Me: "We need to move."

Nurse: "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" She screamed terrified over the gun fire.

Me: "I do not have time to explain! We have to move her out of here now!"

Nurse: "How an Earth do you suppose we do that?!" I fired two quick rounds down the hall to keep them at bay.

Me: "How quickly can she be made mobile to relocate her?"

Nurse: "What?, As in, getting her into an Ambulance?! A good half an hour."

Me: "Not good enough..." *Ping ping ping* the rounds bounced off my armour again, I fired again, catching one of the goons in the arm, completely blowing his arm off, he screamed as he hit the floor. "...At least you're already in a hospital!" I shouted to him. 

'No no, needed to rethink the plan. An ambulance was a stupid idea, driving all way to Spain, would take far too long, would be problems on the borders too, not to mention an English Ambulance with an American national on French and Spanish roads would stick out like a saw thumb... Fuck it... Gonna have to use a Jump, no other way.'

Me: "Nurse, get ready to move her, strap her to the bed, along with any equipment and supplies you need to initially keep her alive."

Nurse: "Strap it all to the bed? Why?"

*Ping ping ping!* *Pow* I fired a blind shot in retaliation to keep them back.

Me: "Do it!"

She looked momentarily flustered then ran around grabbing everything she needed from the room and cupboards and started laying it on the bed.

Clearly baldy had called in back up as some of the other suited goon teams had arrived to reinforce them from behind I stepped back out into the hallway and they started firing again. The rounds again pinging harmlessly off of me. I charged both of my jets and fired as I walked down the hall. One round caught a guy in the shoulder, blowing one arm, shoulder and his head clean off. The other narrowly missed a guy, hitting a door frame behind him and causing it and the brick wall it was mounted to to explode, showering the immediate area with brick and wooden splinters. With each step I took, the goons started backing up, realising I wasn't going down. Baldy even lowered his gun and started walking fast backwards as he stared at me. I spread my tail blades and my walk turned into a sprint, they didn't stand a chance. The first three goons went down with minimal hassle as I spun and took each of them on. One was sliced across the neck, the second stabbed through the abdomen and the last, sliced his head clean off. The remaining goons sensed their inevitability, stopped firing as they were backing down the hall and turned around to do a full on sprint.

I came to a halt as they ran, an unintentional dual tone, possessed, chuckle escaped me at their feeble efforts and turned back to Sarah's room.

Sarah: "You got 'em?" She asked from a rather crowded bed full of equipment and packages, the nurse just tying the last few pieces on using spare bed sheets.

Me: "Some. The others scarpered. But they'll be back, probably with bigger guns knowing SkyTech, so we need to get going. How are we looking nurse?"

Nurse: "Er... *Pant* That should be *pant* everything."

Me: "Good. Climb on the bed as well and hold on tight."

Nurse: "What?"

Me/Reikon: "JUST DO AS I.... ARGH..." I grabbed my head as she looked at me in fear of my dual tone voice and Sarah looked at me sceptically.

Me: "...Please, just do it."

She nodded shakily, climbed on amongst the gear at the foot end.

Me: "Here we go." I opened the Jump against the wall opposite the foot end of the bed, I forced the red and purple fog to grow larger, enough to encompass the bed.

Nurse: "What the hell is that?!"

I ignored her, undid the brakes on the bed wheels and pulled it from the wall to stand at the head end. Sarah looked up to me,

Sarah: "Since when could you open Jumps?"

Me: "Side effect..." I promptly answered, not giving her a chance to reply as I pushed the bed into the Jump.

Nurse: "Holy shiiiit!" She squealed as she entered the unknown.

I floated along behind the bed, holding onto it to make sure it flew straight and true.

Sarah: "Alex... You might need to see to our guest." I peeked over to the headboard to see her incoherently talking in a screechy voice to her self, screwing her face up. I sighed as I pulled myself up and floated over the bed, I swung myself over the girl to cling to the footboard, opposite and next to the girl. The first chance I had to look at her properly with all the goings on. She had fairly long mousey brown hair, tied back in a ponytail and a slim build, pretty face, I guess late twenties early thirties maybe. I opened my faceplates and tapped her on the the shoulder.

Me: "Hey, you ok?"

Nurse: "No! I'm not ok!..." She said, without unscrewing her face "...what have I done to deserve this? Why me? Why me?"

Me: "This is nothing bad I promise you. By doing this you're going to save this lady's life. Come on, relax a little, you're getting yourself into a state."

Nurse: "I'm already in a state! Years of medical school training, university, on job experience... They never prepared me for this!"

Me: "And yet you performed brilliantly under pressure eh? I gave you no time at all to get her mobile while there was a shootout in the corridor outside. Not many people could have coped with that and still done their job. So what's your name?"

Nurse: "Why do you care?"

Me: "Because I can't Keep going round calling you 'Nurse' now can I?" She paused a couple of seconds before replying.

Nurse: "It's Raina."

Me: "Raina... Pretty name, nice to meet you, I'm Alex..." She peeked up slightly as I gestured my hand out to her. She looked at the armoured hand extended in front of her then to my face, "... that's better than how it looks with no armour on, I promise you." She gingerly took it and gave it a small shake before quickly letting go and going back to holding on for dear life and for the first time, looked at her surroundings.

Raina: "What is this?"

Me: "An interdimensional gateway."

Raina: "Where are we going?"

The whisper appeared in my mind, I scanned the landing area, satisfied we were in the clear I accepted it.

Me: "You're about to find out, hold on I'll admit I've not taken large objects like this through before and this is only my second time doing this."

Raina: "WHAT?!"

Barcelona, Spain, Sat 15 Jan 22 11:10

Me: "Here we go!" Raina screamed as we burst through the mist at the end Jump and the bed bounced onto the solid ground. She jumped off quickly and shakily fell to the floor. We had arrived outside the front of a large typical looking Spanish villa, surrounded by native trees.

Raina: "Thank you, oh thank you thank you thank you thank you..." She said bowing down to the floor.

Me: "Relax, I thought that went quite well... come on, you need to get Sarah set up. Sarah, this is your place. Where can we set you up?"

Sarah: "You'll have to take me in through the garage, there's are guest rooms downstairs large enough to take this bed."

Me: "Got it..." I picked Raina up from the floor. "...come on, we've got work to do."

I dragged her and the bed inside, remotely hacking the security for the building and opening a garage door as I approached.

We took Sarah to one of the rooms, instantly we had a problem, a silly little oversight... The machines from the hospital use standard UK 3 pin wall plugs, Spain has European style 2 pin... So I had to quickly Jump into the city, go in to a store, disguised myself of course and bought a crap load of adapters on Sarah's account. Another interesting thing I learnt while out and about, I listened to some of the locals conversations as I passed them in the store, half a dozen maybe, towards the last few of them I could actually understand what they were saying, better still, when the shop keeper asked me:

"¿Cómo estás hoy?" My mind automatically translated it to 'How are you today?' Then without even having to think about it.

Me: "Muy bien, gracias..." I gestured one of apaptors to him as I was placing them in a bag, "...De vacaciones y fui un idiota y olvidé todos mis adaptadores." ... - Which translated as 'I'm on holiday and I was an idiot and forgot all my adapters.' he replied with understanding,

"Ahhh... tengo que decir que tu español es perfecto." - 'I have to say, your Spanish is perfect.'

Me: "Oh gracias. Vengo aquí todos los años." - 'Oh thank you. I come here every year'... Which was a lie of course... I gestured the bag at him as I stepped away and smiled.

"Bueno bueno, disfruta de tus vacaciones." - 'Good good, enjoy your holiday.'

Me: "Gracias." I replied as I left. Considering I failed Spanish in secondary school, I was quite impressed with myself.

__________

I returned back to the villa, where Raina finished setting up Sarah's equipment.

Raina: "So... How long am I being held captive?"

Wrex started trying to call again, he does choose his moments... I had to ignore it, I needed to sort Raina first.

Me: "Captive?! You're not... *Sigh*... Ok, I can see why you think that. Look... come here..." I gestured her out of Sarah's room and down the hall to have a quiet word with her. "...I'm not demanding that you stay, but I'm begging you, please, I need your help to keep an eye on my friend ok? I have some bits I have to collect and set up to heal her... so to speak. But I can't leave her on her own. My only requests are no calls or texts to anyone, turn off your network, use the house wifi only by all means to contact your family, but don't give them any details, tell no one where you are or what you're doing ok? And please, don't go out. Otherwise, do as you please, Sarah won't mind I'm sure. Also, I'll make it worth your while."

Raina: "What do you mean?"

I chuckled at how naïve she was. I concentrated on pushing through a transaction, from Sky High Technologies to Raina's account, via a few other accounts in between, and also falsified the records... Now it looked as though that Raina has been adding the money to her savings account for years, and SkyTech's account looked as though it was written off as a loss.

Me: "Check your bank account... Oh and I just linked up your phone to the wifi for you, on a VPN... sorry, a Very Private Network, you haven't even got to hunt for the password..." She looked confused, then slowly pulled out her phone and looked at me again,

Raina: "How did you-?"

Me: "Go on." I cut her off while smiling.

She concentrated on her phone now, logged into her banking app, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Raina: "What the...?! Where's 10 grand come from?!"

Me: "Call it a gift, an incentive to stay just for three days, you stick it out until your work is done, I will take you home and add another naught to the end of that. Do we have a deal?"

Raina: "I... I think so... Thank you, so much. One little request, can I at least go out and get some over night supplies?"

Me: "No, I can't risk you being seen in public, if any cameras or anyone track you here, they could trace you back to us. But tell me what you need and I will get it after I run my errands ok?, sound fair?"

(-Bring Me The Horizon)

You can find story with these keywords: Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard, Read Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard, Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard novel, Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard book, Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard story, Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard full, Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard Latest Chapter